The woman spoke the words gently, after we had a long conversation about her career ending and her new ‘retirement’ starting – “I think of things to do for the following day, and at the end of the next day I think, well, I didn’t accomplish very much”.  She had some volunteer ideas and a family matter to plan, but it was all a bit limited, and she knew it.

Daily Shopping is a Drag – Her husband piped up: “before I retired, I worked for a large firm.  In the cubicle next to me there was this guy who was a bit older than me.  One day he gave his notice of retirement.  A few weeks later, we had a nice party for him, the boss said some nice things about him and then he emptied out his cubicle.  His spot stayed empty for two weeks, then suddenly he showed up working in his cubicle one day.  I asked him, ‘What happened, I thought you retired?’  He replied, ‘I did, and after two weeks I learned that you can only go to the supermarket so many times each week’.  And that is the truth.”

The Blank Slate – I shared these stores with one of our Transition Advisors, Paul Cohen,  a very successful dentist who had sold his practice recently and retired – his long-held dream.  Paul said “that when you’re in your career, you have such a highly structured day with so many people to see and so much to do – your calendar is chock full.  Then you retire and you have a kind of blank slate”. Read More>>